In today’s Virtual Coffee Chat, Luis talks about the book, “Reality is Broken” by Jane McGonigal. The book can tell you a lot about remote work without mentioning it at all!
Reality is broken: Why Games Make Us Better And How They Can Change The World; this book is about collaboration, about how games and gamers, video game players, collaborate over huge distances because of the communities they form around the games they love. Isn’t that how remote work is too? The teams are diverse but work towards the same goal. You’ll find a lot of similarities between remote work and video games in this book! Watch the video to know about Luis’ opinion on “Reality is Broken”.
Watch this space every day for fresh news, tips and stories from the remote work world!
Transcript
Luis:
Welcome ladies and gentlemen to Virtual Coffee Chat With Luis. We are celebrating Book Week and today is Book Week, day four. We’re going to discover how reality is broken, but coffee isn’t. Thank God for coffee. So the book today is Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal. Reality is broken: Why Games Make Us Better And How They Can Change The World and why this in a video about remote work? Well, because a lot of this book is really about collaboration, about how games and gamers, video game players, collaborate over huge distances because of the communities they form around the games they love. And the book is full of stories like that, so this is actually one of the very few books that goes deeply into remote work without even naming the remote work.
Something that puzzled me ever since I started my remote work journey was how, in a way it’s felt so natural, because I’ve been doing it for years, playing video game online, working with online gaming communities in several projects, and it seemed very effortless then wherein the work, for most people, it seems very challenging and effortful and you need to be mindful in the strategies and tools and tactics that you adopt when working remotely in a way that it didn’t seem necessary when the community was rallying around the video game.
And I didn’t mean specifically, obviously the easy answer is, “Well, a game has built in all the tools and systems that you need to interact with online.” And that’s true for most part regarding certain games like let’s say arena based or team-based first-person shooters, but it’s not quite like that for bigger, more expensive games like MMOs with the big collaborative event, but the reality is that many cases outlined in the book aren’t even in game, they’re more about communities that come together online to do something, themed around the game, but not in the game itself. And the fact is that in the world where remote work leaders often struggle with things like commitment, engagement, trust, et cetera, how to create the culture that engages your remote workforce, a lot of the answers can be found in the world of gaming.
In this book, Jane McGonigal really outlines a lot of examples. It’s a very, very, very, very easy read, even though it’s quite chunky, right? And it looks old, it’s because it is, I’ve read it a ton of times and so the wear and tear really shows, but it’s a pretty easy read. You can flow through it. You can breeze through it in a week and you’re going to get a lot of actionable advice and insights in the dynamic of how people collaborate online and that’s why I’m inserting it in Book Week. So if you enjoyed this, remember virtual coffee chat belongs to Think Remote.
Thinkremote.com is where you need to go to get the latest and greatest about remote work, completely independent insights, news, et cetera. And if you joined the newsletter during our opening month, you will get some nice swag. So be sure to go there and if you enjoy this video, please like, share, comment, subscribe. That’s how I get my coffee. No, I actually don’t. I’m not sponsored by any coffee brand, but it makes my coffee tastier when I see that you enjoy the show. Ladies and gentlemen, this was Virtual Coffee Chat With Luis. Please join me tomorrow for the last day, the final day of Book Week. See you then.
